1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wet air purifiers and, more particularly, to a cyclone type humidifier and wet air purifier combination device using centrifugal force which purifies air in such a way that an ultrasonic vibrator atomizes stored water in a streamlined air guide housing to form fine water particles, and the fine water particles are used to remove pollutants from air, so that air can be purified under optimal conditions, whereby electric energy consumption can be reduced, and purification and dust collection efficiencies can be enhanced even without using an expensive filter, and which can also be used as a humidifier as needed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, air purifiers circulate air in buildings and remove various pollutants from the indoor air, thus making the indoor air pleasant. The pollutants contained in the air refer to air pollution substances originating from external sources such as dust storms, vehicle exhaust gas, dust from construction, etc., and internal pollutants contained in air of living spaces and manufacturing facilities, etc. In addition, the pollutants may also include other types of air pollutants with various origins.
The air purifiers for purifying indoor air are classified into dry air purifiers and wet air purifiers.
A representative example of a dry air purifier is an air purifier using a filter. In the case of a method using a filter, the filter cannot completely catch fine particle dust and remove it from air. Further, as dust which has been contained in air is accumulated on the surface of the filter, the filter is gradually clogged, whereby dust collection efficiency is markedly reduced, and it may become a seedbed for pathogenic bacterium or viruses. Therefore, there is a difficulty in maintenance because periodic filter replacement is required. Furthermore, discarded filters causes secondary environmental pollution.
In addition, photocatalytic, electric precipitation or plasma gas purifiers are examples of another kind of dry air purifier. However, this kind of dry air purifier has a disadvantage of low purification efficiency. Furthermore, anion generation gas purifiers have been reported as creating ozone which may be harmful to the human body.
In an effort to overcome the above-mentioned problems, wet air purifiers which use a cleaning agent to collect pollutants and remove them from air have been proposed. Typically, an air treatment method of such a wet cleaning air purifier includes spraying a cleaning agent into the air to adsorb pollutant particles and remove them from air.
That is, the wet cleaning air purifier purifies air in such a way that the purifier draws indoor air and outdoor air to circulate the indoor air and sprays a cleaning agent using a spraying device when the drawn air passes through an air filter installed in the purifier, thus filtering out pollutants from the air.
Furthermore, wet cleaning air purifiers, which spray water onto an air filter from an upper or lower side of the air filter to clean the air filter and simultaneously purify air, have been introduced. However, because conventional wet cleaning air purifiers use typical dry air purification equipment as it is and spray water before or after circulating indoor air, and then outdoor air passes through the air filter so that pollutants can be filtered out from the air by means of water and the air filter, most pollutants which are contained in air are caught by the air filter, and therefore the air filter must be frequently washed or replaced with a new one. As such, conventional wet cleaning air purifiers are also disadvantageous in that filter maintenance is continuously required.
Furthermore, since the above-mentioned conventional cleaning air purifiers use only a single filter and a single spraying device to filter out pollutants from air, the purification effect is unsatisfactory. In other words, the efficiency of removing pollutants from air is relatively low.
To overcome the above-stated conventional problems, a cleaning air purifier was proposed in Korean Patent Registration No. 100482926. This cleaning air purifier filters out pollutants from air in such a way that filtering water is sprayed two times towards air drawn into the air purifier. In a first filtering water spraying process, only filtering water is used to filter out pollutants from air. In a second filtering water spraying process, filtering water is sprayed onto a filter which is installed in the air purifier, whereby impurities can be more reliably filtered out from air passing through the filter and, simultaneously, the filtering water can also clean the filter that is used to filter out pollutants from air.
Therefore, although the cleaning air purifier of No. 100482926 sprays filtering water twice, removing pollutants from air is substantially performed only by the filter. Thus, if the filter is not reliably cleaned, the air flow rate or air filtering efficiency is reduced, which is problematic.
Particularly, all of the conventional air purifiers including the cleaning air purifier of No. 100482926 use a filter as a main air filtering means. If such a conventional air purifier is used to purify air in work sites in which gas containing high viscosity pollutants or volatile materials such as paint having high viscosity and relatively coarse particles are used, even though enough water is sprayed to the filter, high viscosity pollutants eventually adhere to the filter. In addition, once high viscosity pollutants are adhered to the filter they rapidly adsorb other high viscosity pollutants because of high cohesiveness between such high viscosity pollutants. As a result, the filter becomes clogged and it becomes impossible for the filter to perform its intended function.
Furthermore, if high viscosity gas or volatile materials such as paint having high viscosity adhere to the filter, and because it is very difficult to remove high viscosity materials from the filter, the filter may have to be replaced with a new one. Moreover, in conventional wet air purifiers including the cleaning air purifier of No. 100482926, a method of merely spraying fine water particles is used to purify air. Because the force by which water is sprayed from a nozzle is relatively small, only pollutants which are adsorbed by fine water particles sprayed from the nozzle are dropped downwards and removed from air. Therefore, the efficiency of removing pollutants from air is so low that use of the filter is required.
In addition, the cleaning air purifier of No. 100482926 and other conventional air purifiers are only for use as a purifier. If a humidification function is needed, use of a separate humidifier is required.